Cup stacking first became popular in the mid-1990s as a method of teaching physical coordination, including hand-to-eye coordination, to youngsters. Cup stacking helps students use both sides of their bodies and brains, develop ambidexterity, develop quickness, and improve concentration. Cup stacking also helps teach sequencing and patterning, which can help in developing math and reading skills. Since the mid-1990s, the sport has grown in popularity throughout the world, primarily in elementary schools, where it has become a part of many physical education programs, afterschool, and sports programs. The sport involves stacking and unstacking a set of specially designed cups in pre-arranged sequences while being timed. The object of the competitions is to complete the sequence in as short a time as possible. There are several standard sequences and the competitions can be performed by an individual or by a team in a relay fashion. Timing of the competition has conventionally been performed by a judge with a stopwatch. The competitor begins with both hands face down on the table where the cups are to be stacked. The judge gives a verbal cue, usually “Ready, Get Set, Go”, starting the stopwatch on the word GO. Time is stopped when the sequence is completed.
One of the major drawbacks to the sport has been the inaccuracy associated with having different individuals time the competitors using stopwatches. Errors in timing due to variations in human reaction time often exceed several tenths of a second and are significant (as much as 10% off) when measuring competitive times. Competitive times in this sport range from 2 to 15 seconds with winners of the competition usually determined thousandths of seconds. To mitigate against the human reaction time, in final competitions, three judges are used and the high and low times are not counted against the competitor. This measure, however, is inefficient and does not cure the inaccuracies inherent with using human judges since the measured time to complete the sequence is still subjective.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,940,783 and 7,042,806, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference, disclose a mat for timing competitions. The teachings of these patents address the timing problem discussed above. The disclosures of these patents include a timing mechanism. The timing mechanism may be incorporated into a mat or otherwise be associated with the mat. In either case, the timing mechanism mitigates the inaccuracies associated with utilizing human judges. In particular, these patents teach a trigger means with a timing means operatively connected to the trigger means. The trigger may be pressure or touch sensitive so that the timer begins to accrue time with a first activation of the trigger and stops with a second activation of the trigger. This timing approach is implemented such that the timer requires the competitor to place both hands on the timer to start it and both hands on the timer again to stop it after completing the sequence. This type of timer has two separate pads to sense the presence of each of the competitor's hands and these pads activate an electronic timing circuit within the timer. By requiring both of the competitor's hands to be engaged with the timer before and after the stacking sequence, the timer prevents competitors from gaining an advantage by starting the timer after the stacking sequence has begun or stopping the timer before the stacking sequence is completed.
As used herein, the terms “sport stacking” and “cup stacking” may be used interchangeably. Sport stacking is often used as a broader term and includes but is not limited to cup stacking. Embodiments and features of the present disclosure are well suited to sport stacking, but it should be recognized that they may be used for various competitions and timing competitions. Embodiments and features of the present disclosure are not limited to timed stacking competitions.
However, there remain disadvantages associated with the trigger-based timing approach discussed above. In particular, one of the rules in cup stacking is that the competitor can activate the two pads with any part of their hand as long as it is above the wrist and so competitors usually activate the timer using the part of their hand that is as close to the wrist as possible, which allows the rest of their hands to be as close to the cups as possible. Other sport stacking rules prohibit the competitor from holding the cups before the timer is started and from holding the cups when the timer is stopped. During official competition, competitor's stacking attempts are evaluated by a judge and are also video recorded and evaluated in slow motion at a later time by officials to look for infractions of these and other rules.
As the sport has matured, competitors have become so fast that live judges at the competition cannot accurately determine whether or not a competitor's hands are holding the cups when the timer is stopped. Even high-speed video played frame by frame cannot consistently confirm compliance with this rule. Therefore, an improved timer design that prevents the competitor's hands from holding the cups when the timer is started and stopped would improve the sport by relieving judges from monitoring for this rule and would eliminate the need to video review these parts of the sequence, saving time and money.
The timing device described above has also been adopted for use in other competitions, such as competitive cubing, where competitors compete for time to solve a combination or sequential move puzzle such as a Rubik's Cube. These timing devices are well suited for competitive cubing because the same requirement for a competitor's hands to be in a known position prior to and following the solving of the puzzle also apply. However, problems with a competitor's hands holding the puzzle before the timer is started or after the timer is stopped have not developed in competitive cubing because other rules prevent them from occurring. Therefore, an improved device for cup stacking should ideally be designed with an alternate mode for use with competitive cubing in which only two of the touchpads are active, including an ability to switch between these modes.
Because timers used for both cup stacking and competitive cubing are often connected to remote displays so that spectators and judges can see the resulting time of each competitor, an improved timing device should include a feature which indicates on the remote display which mode of operation the timer is set to. For example, in one embodiment, the timer could blink the time being displayed on the timer's LCD display and on the remote display whenever the timer is in a mode intended for competitive cubing competitions, where only two of the touchpads are active. The resulting time would not blink when the timer is set to the mode in which all touchpads are active.